{"id":38554,"date":"2014-09-15T16:18:44","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T21:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=38554"},"modified":"2014-09-15T16:18:44","modified_gmt":"2014-09-15T21:18:44","slug":"research-links-drilling-activities-to-water-contamination-in-north-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/09\/15\/research-links-drilling-activities-to-water-contamination-in-north-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Links Drilling Activities to Water Contamination in North Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

Used with permission from Thomas Darrah, OSU<\/p>

The study explored different scenarios that may have accounted for elevated methane in the groundwater.<\/p><\/div>\n

For years, some residents of Parker County in North Texas have believed that\u00a0nearby gas drilling was responsible for high levels of methane in\u00a0neighborhood\u00a0water wells.\u00a0Research published today in the\u00a0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/i>\u00a0appears to back that up.<\/p>\n

The study looked at water contamination in Texas and Pennsylvania. It suggests that faulty cement jobs on drilling wells could be at fault in North Texas. Cement is poured between the rock wall and the steel tubing of oil and gas wells to block contaminants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think either there isn’t enough cement in this location or more likely there are cracks or imperfections in that cement. That\u2019s what allowed the strong gas to move up through the well and then out into peoples drinking water,” says\u00a0Robert Jackson, a professor of environmental sciences at Stanford, who co-authored of the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most interesting things was that we saw two houses go from clean to contaminated over the study period,” says Jackson. “One home, in particular, the methane in their water jumped tenfold from one sampling time to the next. So we caught contamination in the act.\u201d<\/p>\n

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